“This high school is a factory manufacturing useful men out of boys”, our deputy head teacher used to say.

I wondered constantly whether one day I would be the proverbial useful man that our deputy head teacher always orchestrated. This became my driving force towards success and worked hard to achieve it. My dream had always been to join the university and do journalism, a career that seemed to synchronize with my feelings and way of life, my personality and guts. In my fourth form, our teacher’s phrase became music in my heart, pressing me to work harder, in order to climb up the ladder. Somebody once said that in success there is no lift; you have to use the stairs. In my heart I knew all this struggle would be over and results would soon come that would determine the course of everyone’s life.

February the 28th of the year 2004 was a day of unlimited anticipation. The previous night had been nothing less, having preceded the day my fate would be known. I had sat for the ‘qualifier’ exams the previous year, and until then my mind was still fresh with the format of the questions and the answers I had given. I could nearly evaluate and grade myself, but with uncertainties of the marking process, one could never tell what awaited one. The only effort I could put, if any, was to turn to the Almighty for intervention.

That morning, I borrowed my father’s radio, set it in my small cage (in a way it appeared as one) and cast my attention on it as if my whole life depended on it. I had never become a fan of the radio; it was grotesque-like seeing me immersed in it in that manner. As the Minister for Education echoed the welcome speech, my heartbeat seemed to double with each second, as I felt him move closer to the release of the news. I knew that the very time he declared the results officially released, I would be able to access mine. I had my laptop ready, and as soon as the Minister released the results, I launched into the browser and entered my particulars. As was expected, the website was overworked since everyone had the same anxiety as mine and was at the same time delving into it to know their fates.